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Argument, Think Autism Sydney 2025
A trauma therapist traced the distrust of lived experience back to colonisation
In short
At Think Autism Sydney in 2025, a trauma therapist on a panel of neurodivergent practitioners argued that mental health care inherited its suspicion of lived experience, and described sitting on the ground with clients.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
One panellist had two points to make about the value of lived experience in mental health care, and led with the larger one. “One is colonisation really screwed us over,” the trauma therapist told the neurodivergent health practitioners panel at Think Autism Sydney in May 2025.
The question had come from Dr Naomi Malone, the psychologist leading the session, who asked about the power of lived experience in a field where it has often been treated as something practitioners should put aside. The therapist’s answer was historical. They described a model of community in which elders were supposed to mentor younger people, and younger people in turn had a role reminding elders that the world was changing and what its values now looked like. Measured against that, they said, it was strange that lived and living experience could be seen as a bad thing at all.
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Sources the story draws on
- Australian Psychological Society apologises to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People (opens in a new tab), Australian Psychological Society
- National Lived Experience (Peer) Workforce Development Guidelines (opens in a new tab), National Mental Health Commission
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